There is reported a method for producing fluoroalkyl vinyl ether by reacting a fluoroalkyl alcohol and alkyl vinyl ether in the presence of a palladium catalyst. However, this reaction uses large excess alkyl vinyl ether with respect to the fluoroalkyl alcohol. In addition, the time required for the reaction is 72 hours or more, and the yield is only about 75% (see Patent Document 1 and Non-Patent Document 1). Another problem is that when the crude product with a low conversion rate obtained by this reaction is purified by distillation, the high-volatile, unreacted fluoroalkyl alcohol is distilled together with the resulting product, thus making the purification operation difficult.Rf(CH2)nOH+H(CH2)mOCH═CH2→Rf(CH2)nOCH═CH2                 n: 2 to 6, m: 1 to 6        
There is also reported a case in which the same reaction starting materials are used, and mercury acetate Hg(OAc)2 is used as a catalyst. However, the yield in this case is as low as about 50%, and the use of such a mercury-based catalyst is not preferable in terms of environmental impact (see Non-Patent Document 2).C6F13CH2CH2OH+C2H5OCH═CH2→C6F13CH2CH2OCH═CH2 
Further, there is proposed a method for synthesizing a desired alkyl vinyl ether R1OCH═CH2 by reacting an aliphatic hydrocarbon-based alcohol R1OH (R1: an alkyl group having 10 to 18 carbon atoms) and alkyl vinyl ether R2OCH═CH2 (R2: an alkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms) in the presence of a palladium catalyst. This reaction takes an advantage of characteristics of equilibrium reaction so that a by-product alcohol R2OH produced in the reaction and derived from the starting alkyl vinyl ether is removed from the system to shift the reaction equilibrium to the production side, thereby improving yield (see Patent Document 2).
In this reaction, however, in order to shift the equilibrium to the production side, among the starting alcohol, starting vinyl ether, target vinyl ether, and by-product alcohol present in the reaction system, the boiling point of the by-product alcohol to be removed from the system must be the lowest. For this reason, there are significant limitations not only on the structure of the target vinyl ether, but also on the structures of the starting alcohol and starting vinyl ether. Thus, this method lacks general applicability. Another problem is that the necessity of discharging the by-product alcohol outside the system makes the reactor and experimental procedures complicated, and makes simple scale-up difficult.
In addition, there is reported a method for synthesizing a corresponding alkyl vinyl ether ROCH═CH2 by reacting an alcohol ROH and vinyl acetate CH3COOCH═CH2 in the presence of an iridium catalyst [Ir(cod)Cl]2 (see Patent Document 3). However, the iridium catalyst used in this method is expensive, and the yield of the alkyl vinyl ether to triethylene glycol as the alcohol is as low as 63% (see Example 42). This reaction is considered to be greatly affected by the acidity of alcohols.
Moreover, many of the compounds obtained here have a perfluoroalkyl group, which is rigid and therefore lacks flexibility. Thus, the side chain portion of a polymer into which this molecule is introduced lacks flexibility, and there is a possibility that the solubility of the polymer may be reduced.
Recently, hardly decomposition, high bioaccumulation potential, and suspicious biogenic toxicity of perfluorooctanoic acids (PFOAs) or perfluoroalkyl group-containing carboxylic acids (PFCAs) containing a perfluoroalkyl group having 8 or more carbon atoms are reported as environmental problems that cannot be ignored. For the vinyl ethers reported in the above documents, perfluoroalkylethyl alcohols, which are perfluorocarboxylic acid precursors, are often used as starting materials. In such a reaction, however, the possibility that the perfluoroalkylethyl alcohols may be converted into perfluorocarboxylic acids containing a perfluoroalkyl group having 8 or more carbon atoms in the environment is suggested, which is viewed as a problem. Accordingly, functional groups alternative thereto are required.